The threat of a nuclear war becomes increasingly imminent as every few years some new nation declares itself capable of launching nuclear missiles. In addition to the massive arsenals of the United States and Russia that have been kept on hair-trigger alert since the cold war, the world must now worry about the nuclear arsenals of a number of other countries. Despite the efforts made at preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the United States and the rest of the nuclear world must accept the fact that it is only a matter of time before some rogue nation obtains such weapons.
One of the primary reasons why a nation would launch a nuclear first strike is out of the fear that it will itself be the victim of a first strike. In order to reduce the chances of a nuclear war, it would be highly desirable to establish a system that assuages the participating parties of this fear. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,006, of which I am a co-inventor, however, that system was designed specifically for the use of the two Cold War adversaries, the United States and the Soviet Union. A more robust system that is suitable for a world with a plurality of nuclear players is needed.
The previous invention relates to a system in which a Central Computer Control System (CCCS), usually administered by an international authority such as the United Nations, controls the firing systems of the nuclear arsenals of two adversaries. Missiles cannot be launched by either party until the CCCS has provided the party with launch sequences for the missiles. In the event one party makes a request to the CCCS for the release of the launch sequences of its missiles, so it may launch a strike against its adversary, the other party is notified. If no cancellation of the request is made within a predetermined period of time, the intended victim will receive the required launch sequences and will be able to fire its missiles. The first strike requester will not receive its launch sequences for a predetermined period of time. This system evokes great consequences for the requesting party of a nuclear strike and serves to deter such action. Expansion of this system to make it suitable for a plurality of parties, however, presents a large set of problems. The present invention is designed to solve these problems and to adapt the prior art to today's world.